Show Will Go On

On June 2, we wrote about how Street Sense was having trouble booking its second annual benefit concert. The Black Cat felt the lineup that the homeless-produced newspaper suggested wouldn’t draw the numbers needed to cover expenses; Street Sense argued it could do the advertising and would fill the room.

In the story, a Street Sense volunteer said that he hoped somebody would call him up and offer to sponsor the event. Three days later, Yaniv Gelnik, an owner of Keller Williams Capital Properties, called us up and asked how. We Googled Street Sense and gave him its number.

After some negotiations with the Black Cat and the paper, the residential and commercial brokerage will sponsor the show by renting out the club on Aug. 19. The club says it typically does not rent out its space but made an exception for—and gave a major discount to—the nonprofit magazine. The cost for the evening is $2,000—more than last year’s benefit netted Street Sense.

The agreement shows that there’s no bad blood, says Laura Osuri, the paper’s executive director. “The article made it seem like there was a much bigger fight between Street Sense and the Black Cat, but they were looking out for their interests and we were looking out for ours,” she says. “It’s great everything worked out.”

Talent has yet to be lined up for the show, but Gelnik says that Keller Williams has no plans of springing for the artist that shares its name. “Keller Williams performs at the 9:30 Club, not the Black Cat,” says Gelnik. “He wants like 30 grand for a night.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Follow That Story, Media, Nightlife. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.